I think making things noticeably bigger would require 64 bit code since they're working with distinct AI instead of scripted visuals. I don't think Maxis will be moving off 32 bit for some time, since their stuff tends to be more for the casual gamer.

I suspect Sims 4 onward will be 64 bit, though I obviously don't know.

Ughh... I am so torn by this game. I honestly can't tell if it is going to be the best SimCity ever or the worst. I'm actually leaning toward best and yet I don't know if I will be able to bring myself to buy/play it because of EA... So much internal conflict...

I managed to get one of the keys by camping the Nvidia FB page. I'm going to download it tonight and give it a go. I have high hopes for it especially since the gaming market is made up of nothing but FPS's. I do pray EA's evilness hasn't sucked the joy of the game out.

The previews I've seen look pretty good but internet DRM is a dealbreaker. I have a feeling that EA is going to learn the hard way that SimCity's target market actually does care about that sort of thing.

He just insulted a lot of people, but whatever. I'll be off then, see you people in some other dark corner of the internets.

It's okay man. We all do goofy stuff. If you needed to goto a different corner of the internet, you wouldn't have been able to post that.

Yeah I love city sims. They seem so few and far between. I tried out Anno 2042070 or w/e. It seemed fun but some of the dynamics seemed a little unnecessary. Tropico 4 was a blast, but I played it out and the expansions were a very pathetic excuse for content. I'm still stuck on natural selection 2. I just hope they come out with some new maps soon and balance aliens. It's pretty easy to hop on the murder train as most of the aliens.

But, SC 2013 is so huge and so compute-hungry, EA has to have a massive server farm to run it from the mothership. This sounds like a single source with MANY potential points of failure.

And they're not going to let people run their own servers (if even it were possible for mere mortals with "consumer" grade servers). You must join the Origin family.

Also, I see/"hear" a lot of EA/Maxis hand-waving and chanting going on at the EA forums. To the last man/woman, they are all CONVINCED that their way is the best way, therefore it must be the ONLY way.

ALL past versions of Sim City had terrible performance and reliability until after a couple of hotfixes. It wasn't "Sim City", it was "Crash City" until the devs could rush some patches out the door.

For all of these reasons, I plan to let the hype drop off before I make any decisions. Currently, I'm in the "no thanks" column, but luckily, I don't have to make a decision now and I don't have to live with it, either.

I guess I'm dating myself by noting I was a pretty serious fan of SimCity -- the original from the late 80's. I played the Closed (Weekend) Beta last night.

It was very pretty -- quite reminiscent of The Sims 3 in many respects. The ability to drill down and look at individuals walking around (and what they're thinking/doing) is interesting, as are the "quests" from individuals. The tiny size of the "cities" leaves me feeling kinda cold.

It seemed fairly polished and stable, though with only 90 minutes play (roughly 30 min tutorial then an hour in a town you create) it was hard to fully tell. A lot of items were "NOT IN BETA" when you hovered over them.

Will I buy it? Definitely, though not until it's out on Steam, and probably not 'til it's 50% off. Given that EA seems to be semi-at-war with Valve at the moment, that might be a while.

March 5th is the day for those who will download or buy at the big box, March 7th with 2 day shipping on Amazon. Amazon is still running a deal for 20 bucks credit on another purchase (code to be emailed within 2 days) when you pre-order the boxed game.